


Back To The Middle (And Around Again)

by gigisgoode



Category: RuPaul's Drag Race (US) RPF
Genre: F/F, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, bby denali is sad, my first work in yrs please be kind, set in untucked ep4, title from 100 percent pure love- crystal waters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-25
Updated: 2021-01-25
Packaged: 2021-03-18 03:48:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 846
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28985868
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gigisgoode/pseuds/gigisgoode
Summary: ‘I don’t know what it is about you, but I can’t even look at you right now.’
Relationships: Denali/Rosé
Comments: 24
Kudos: 105





	Back To The Middle (And Around Again)

**Author's Note:**

> Awright babs? I haven't been able to stop thinking about this ship since the episode aired so I thought I'd take one for the team and write a little something something. It's probably shite, I don't know. I haven't written for a long time and all of my other works on here are orphaned, but hey if you like it do let me know. X

Denali’s eyes have been darting around the werk room for what to Rosé feels like hours now, looking for a kind place to land; desperately seeking a home where she can fall apart in safety. She’s barely present, her hand trembles around her cocktail and she doesn’t even notice when Rosé sets it down on the table, knowing that ostrich feathers weren’t cheap and it was one thing to have to lipsync, but another to have to do it covered in vodka cranberry. The conversation around her goes in one ear and out the other as her brain is all feathers and Rosé and dance moves and Rosé and lyrics to a song she’s been performing for years, but she just can’t remember what comes after the first chorus, she just can’t, she can’t.

Rosé’s in full mother mode and it’s freaking her out, feels like she’s watching her crying kid go into nursery and knowing she’s got to leave him there. There’s nothing she wants more than to go and calm Denali, to go and soothe the storm in her head that Rosé can tell even from a distance is hurtling around in her mind. But she can’t.

Because what if Denali breaks. What if her knees buckle in her metaphorical skates and she falls. She can’t wipe the tears away; hold her against her chest until her heart returns to its regular rhythm with all the other girls looking. She will _not_ be this season’s Crygi. She needs Denali to be strong, but from the way Rosé can see her blankly staring at her tissue as a streak of eyeliner runs down her cheek, she doesn’t think she’s going to get so lucky.

The conversation ends. Kahmora has all of the Porkchop girls in a group hug, and whilst Rosé doesn’t want to lose her sister first either, no one else was going to see her hand gently grasp Denali’s in the midst of all that tulle.

They pull away. LaLa goes to listen to her iPod, Kandy’s entertaining the others. She’s _desperate_. She’ll contemplate whether she’s Brooke Lynn or Vanessa later because Denali needs her. There’s a wistful, far away look in Denali’s eyes and she will not deny her any longer.

‘Nali, baby’, she whispers, a hand falling to her hip as Denali turns to face her. Rosé could’ve lost it there and then from feeling the tremors running through Denali’s body as she pulls her closer, one hand around her waist and the other resting on her back of her head, her thumb softly stroking as she gently shushes her.

Her eyes are closed and just as Rosé is about to speak again, she stumbles.

‘I don’t know what it is about you, but I can’t even look at you right now.’

Her words hit Rosé like a fucking baseball bat. She can’t even begin to process them though because Denali’s fumbling again, her hands shakily trying to grasp Rosé’s jacket to ground herself, muttering to herself that she just _can’t_.

‘You don’t even have to look at me, you know? You don’t have to look at me right now, and you wanna know why?’

Rosé‘s stability, her calmness, her kindness, gives Denali the confidence she needs to look up at Rosé for the first time that evening from underneath her fringe.

‘You wanna know why?’ Rosé laughs, her right hand coming up to cup Denali’s cheek.

‘Why?’

‘Because you’re gonna have a lot of time to look at me, alright, baby?’

Denali couldn’t help but smile, and Rosé knew she had managed to stop the avalanche. Now, she thought, just to rebuild the mountain.

‘You _really_ beat me the last time we did this, okay? I mean, you realllly beat me and that’s fierce. I want you to do exactly what you did then, go into it with the same energy and the same passion and give it everything you’ve got.’

Denali sniffles and tries to blink her tears back.

‘I have a set plan of everything I want to do. All the moves and tricks I was saving until the end of this competition are coming out today.’

‘I know you do baby, that’s good’ Rosé reassures, reaching out to take hold of both of Denali’s hands. She lowers her tone to even softer than a whisper before she steps forward and says

‘I need you to do this not just for you, okay, I need you to do this for me too because I really need you here with me.’

A soft gasp escapes Denali’s throat and she looks up at Rosé with glistening eyes, whether that was from the tears or something else.

‘I know we can both make it to the top, together. So tonight you have to fight, for both of us to make it there. I know you can do it. You know you can do it. Go out and there and kill it.

The sentiment is final, a kiss goodbye, and they pull away after a lingering hug.

‘You know what to do.’


End file.
